If most of the messages in the mainstream media are negative towards doing anything positive to change our societies, then what should we do?
I want to highlight two online videos which act as good talking points for my impression of where New Zealand is at right now. The first is a Ted talk given by a critic of suburban sprawl James Howard Kunstler. His thesis is that suburbia is a reaction to the horrible living conditions endured in industrial revolution cities, and is as an attempt to marry the bucolic country life with city amenities. 80 years later with the automobile thrown in the mix and you have cities and public spaces which people ‘don’t care about’.
A recent editorial in the Dom Post lambasted the Wellington city council’s inability to create a coherent regional development strategy. “Though some Wellingtonians might see council concern for the cbd as laudable, it not only ignores reality [my emphasis], it also ignores the fundament of a market-driven economy - competition. If stores in downtown Wellington want to attract shoppers, they must employ the age-old tactics of holding good stock, asking affordable prices and having welcoming staff and store fronts, not rely on the council instituting a protection racket on their behalf.” The ‘reality’ that the author speaks of is given away earlier in the editorial: “…shopping is now the No 1 leisure activity for so many families…“. They imply that in a market-driven economy shopping should not only be encouraged but is reality - conveniently ignoring the fact that we don’t live in a market-driven economy, rather we live in a mixed economy. What is more notable is the lack of imagination in the solution to the problem. Wellington’s compressed geography is perfectly suited for intelligent high-density town planning and public transport along dense corridors. Instead the automobile dependent solution which the editorial suggests creates what James Kunstler terms the ‘national automobile slum’ otherwise known as suburbia.
The second talk is Bill Moyers of PBS fame speaking at the National Conference for Media Reform.
New Zealand’s media is controlled by four companies and the government: Fairfax (who also own TradeMe), APN News & Media, MediaWorks (owned by Australian investment firm Ironbridge Capital), Sky TV owned by the ubiquitous Rupert Murdoch, and of course state owned TVNZ of whose broadcasting when compared to the BBC, PBS or ABC could only be described as dire. With the change of editor (and editorial direction) at the Listener which was the last media outlet to be aligned ‘politically left’, New Zealand no longer has a strong non-corporate agenda media channel. My conception of New Zealand media is that it consists of licensing U.S. sitcoms and reality shows, with a smattering of BBC and Australian content, and a fondness for getting the National Party elected this year.
This in itself is not necessarily bad as the smallness of New Zealand’s population mean that skeletons don’t easily hide in closets. ‘Big media’ in New Zealand is not as likely or able to engage in dishonest reporting in the same way as certain outlets in the U.S. or the U.K. (unbelievably the Sun is the most read newspaper in England). Unfortunately in terms of highlighting, reporting and advocating progressive social, environmental and international issues New Zealand’s media ownership situation is a nightmare for the following reason: there aren’t enough of the rest of us to incubate and sustain the type of radical, entrepreneurial or grassroot ideas - although we are quick to celebrate our successes once it is safe to.
The Flight of the Conchords were only noticed by the mainstream here after they were well regarded overseas. The same Crowded House songs are trumpeted out over and over again. Our sporting/war heroes of yesteryear are paraded on an infinite loop. There are continuous reminders of how great a nation we are, yet these individual brilliances belie the fact that New Zealand is not a cultural or economic leader. I wrote a rallying call here about New Zealand accepting that it will never be an economic giant and instead we should promote what we are good at (Maori culture and history, our environment, egalitarianism (equality) and lifestyle.). The press in New Zealand are not very good at advancing these view points.
Three recent opinion pieces in the Press highlighted both the state of the discussion in the media and this aspect of our psyche. The first written by Reuben Hunt starts with him explaining how the world is going to an environmental hell in a hand basket and finishes with him saying “[l]et’s hope it won’t be just the meek and the poor who inherit the Earth, but there will be room for a few Kiwis, too”. The second, by David Round, speaking of aid in a time of oil and food shortages and the potential for economic refugees finished saying “[i]t is time to batten down the hatches. It is time to prepare to repel the borders.” The last was by Karl du Fresne who in the same opinion piece both endearingly lampooned suburban bores (he wants them as his neighbours rather than pierced and tattooed hippies), and railed against the “crock we’re stuck with now” that is MMP.
I cannot think of three opinions I more want to run screaming from. Selfish, frightened, insular, reactionary - and like the Dom Post editorial - unimaginative. Rather than looking at the future and dreading how it isn’t going to be like yesterday, why not think (and write) positively and actually do something about it.
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